"What's all this fuss I keep hearing about military action against cereal?"
--From; image from
"If Assad is eating Cheerios, we're going to take away his spoon and give him a fork. Will that degrade his ability to eat Cheerios? Yes. Will it deter him? Maybe. But he'll still be able to eat Cheerios."
--A "senior official" involved in the White House's Syria planning
VIDEO
Breaking down Obama’s Syria address - Washington Post
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Personifying America outside the perimeter: Diplomats gamble with their lives to win friends - Taara Sonnenshine, Washington Times: "The public piece of diplomacy is important and often overlooked. We don’t see on our television screens the process of relationship-building that diplomats do with ordinary citizens in extraordinary places, particularly interactions with youth overseas whose ideas and perceptions of America will influence how they behave and the degree to which we can sustain robust trade and interactions with other nations. ... Embassies build relationships around the world that echo.
The relationships that our public diplomacy officers build with local religious figures, for example, are invaluable in a crisis when you need to tamp down anti-American feelings. In
Sunday Morning's Programming 9/8/13 - www.allthingscnn.com: "RELIABLE SOURCES – Airs LIVE Sunday 11:00AM – NOON Topic: Recent news coverage of Syria Guest: Arwa Damon, CNN Senior International Correspondent Guest: Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland professor Guest: Christina Bellantoni, politics editor at PBS NewsHour Guest: Tara Sonenshine, undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of State [sic]."
U.S. diplomats need disciplined message from home - "Judith McHale, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, developed a way almost three years ago to integrate public diplomacy professionals into all of the department’s geographic bureaus — teaming policy closely with communications. She also attempted to better align State and Defense Department public communication efforts by including a detailed assessment on where Pentagon dollars were going to support U.S. diplomacy at posts worldwide. McHale’s successor, Tara Sonenshine, strengthened that mission through the newly established Center of Strategic Counter-Terrorism Communications, which was created to counter Al Qaeda’s propaganda. She also made concerted attempts to integrate activities in Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. Both achieved some significant successes but ultimately met the same bureaucratic resistance. The Pentagon has also offered some good ideas. Assistant Secretary George Little, the secretary’s chief spokesperson, dissolved the department’s internal strategic communications entities late last year. Ten years of experimenting proved that this tangle of bureaucracies was unworkable. Some confusion persists about how these functions should be assigned, but it is clear that the solution does not lie in adding more organizations. The dust has settled on Benghazi, and one lesson is that [murdered Ambassador] Stevens’s public diplomacy work was critical and inherently dangerous.
Another wider lesson is that the U.S. government is not organized to meet the long-term imperative of countering violent extremism with its own message. Instead, we’re wasting millions on uncoordinated communications and a confederacy of competing bureaucracies. Many very capable public affairs and public diplomacy professionals at the State Department and Pentagon have tried to fix this and failed, victims of turf fights within and among their bureaucracies. The White House, Congress and the federal interagency need a deliberate, disciplined and integrated process for national security communications. ... Brian Cullin and Matthew Leatherman, politico.com: Brian Cullin served most recently as senior adviser to Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine. He was previously assistant White House press secretary in the Clinton administration. He is a retired military public affairs officer." Image from entry
Russia to Syria: Put chemical weapons under foreign control - Fred Weir, minnpost.com [09/10/13]: "Russia on Monday called for putting Syria’s chemical weapons under international control, in a surprise move aimed at averting threatened US missile strikes designed to punish Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad for allegedly using them. The proposal, which was quickly welcomed by Syria’s foreign minister, comes amid a flurry of negotiations and public diplomacy aimed at heading off looming US military action. In interviews with CBS and PBS, broadcast Monday, President Assad denied government forces used chemical weapons in the Aug. 21 attack that prompted the White House to rally support for military action."
Obama has given Assad a voice in the debate - David Lesch, Financial Times: "While the diplomatic drama between Moscow and Washington plays out, Mr Assad is playing an unusual gambit: an attempt at public diplomacy. Syria has traditionally been bad at persuasion, primarily because it has not had much practice at it. However, for the Damascus government, the time lag brought on by democratic processes in the west has been something of a gift. Mr Assad and his allies have been allowed time to make their argument and to cast doubt on the claims that Syrian government forces carried out the August 21 chemical weapons attack – and to move military assets out of harm’s way. ... [T]he crisis could produce a long-awaited diplomatic breakthrough (and UN Security Council co-operation) on Syria. But it is more likely that Syria will return to the mutually destructive stalemate that preceded all the recent posturing and threats. Mr Assad’s public diplomacy might just have done enough."
Venezuela's New Take on the Future - Editorial, geopoliticalmonitor.com: "[T]his is the time when highly positive outcomes can happen in Venezuela and transform the country into an open market economy and establish close ties with Western economies, and cease to support rogue nations such as Syria and Iran.To do so will be no easy feat, as the domestic situation in Venezuela is not overly positive. Politics continue to be polarized and the nationalisation of strategic sectors formerly run by private corporations remains a drag on the economy; it recorded the 12th-lowest economic growth in the region in 2011. The Venezuelan ruling class has gradually absorbed the ideological indoctrination of its Cuban communist strategists, whose country has been highly interconnected with Caracas during the last decade, owing to the extenstive oil shipments to the island. With Chavez
fading from the region’s political picture, Cuba will begin to strengthen and establish new alliances and partnerships, in addition to Venezuela, with other Caribbean countries. This is also the perfect chance for the State Department to rise up to the opportunity and embark on an intensive public diplomacy compaign, among with other elements of statecraft, and develop a proactive strategy that would increasingly attract Venezuelan opposition leaders and former Chavista legislators who can lead the way to establish a flourishing democracy in the heart of the Caribbean, a potential success story that would inspire change and reforms in Havana and throughout the wider region." Uncaptioned image from article
Why Secretary Kerry has not yet designated anyone to represent him at BBG meetings? - BBG Watger, usgbroadcasts.com: "As far as we know, Secretary of State John Kerry has not yet designated anyone to represent him and vote at formal Board meetings of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting, which includes media outlets such as Voice of America (VOA). The Secretary of State is an ex-officio member of the nine-person, bipartisan Board, but no Secretary of State has ever attended any formal BBG Board meetings, which in itself is highly unfortunate considering that the agency has been badly managed in recent years. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the agency 'defunct,' yet she herself had not attended any BBG Board meetings, although she did have a get-acquainted meeting with other BBG members. The Secretary of State usually appoints a high-level State Department official to attend BBG meetings. Former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine represented Hillary Clinton and briefly John Kerry. She had left her post last July.
No one has been appointed since her departure to represent Secretary Kerry at BBG meetings, although a lower-ranking State Department official usually attends these meetings and takes notes. The absence of a formal State Department representative at meetings of the Broadcasting Board of Governors is very unfortunate for several reasons and it has been made worse by the current crisis over Syria." Image from entry, with caption: Secretary of State John Kerry with Lyudmila Alexeeva in Moscow, May 8, 2013. Alexeeva was boycotting Radio Liberty after human rights reporters had been fired. The BBG Board resolved the crisis, which was being ignored by IBB officials. Alexeeva is again cooperating with Radio Liberty. RFE/RL has a new president, Kevin Klose, who was appointed by the BBG Board.
On Obama’s Syria address, Voice of America far behind Russia Today, BBC and Al Jazeera in social media outreach - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "After President Obama’s address to the nation on plans for military actions against Syria, the Voice of America English home page showed a video of illegally trafficked monkeys
instead of the presidential speech. A very short VOA report on the speech without a video got only 15 (fifteen) Facebook 'Likes' and 5 (five) Tweets in about three hours while a much longer Russia Today report with video got 792 Facebook 'Likes.'" Image from entry, with caption: VOA Featured Video after President Obama’s speech to the nation on Syria. See also (update).
Big news about the BBG chairman. Except that it doesn't mention the BBG - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "New York Times, 9 S[ep]t 2013, Brooks Barnes: 'Jeff Shell, an
NBC Universal television executive, will soon take over day-to-day operations at Universal Studios, according to three people briefed on the development. ... [Elliott comment]: Unmentioned in this piece is that Mr. Shell is the recently appointed chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.'" Uncaptioned image from entry
Al Jazeera America may still have more detractors than viewers - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Israel’s i24 Fights for Space in Crowded Global Cable TV Market - Joshua Mitnick, Wall Street Journal: "Alongside CNN, the BBC and Al Jazeera, is there room for another international news channel with an Israeli voice? That is one of the key questions facing i24, an upstart Israeli news channel based in Tel Aviv which began broadcasting in July. The channel will have to demonstrate that an Israeli take on the news around world can draw mass audiences from the Jewish state’s Arab neighbors, Europe and the U.S. Broadcasting in English, French and Arabic, the channel is being financed by French-Israeli communications mogul Patrick Drahi and its operations spearheaded by
Chief Executive Frank Melloul, a former French Foreign Ministry spokesman who helped found France’s government-owned news channel, France 24. Acutely aware that many suspect i24 as Israeli public relations foil, Mr. Melloul and station executives are quick to remind listeners they are privately owned and don’t receive any funding from the Israeli government. Mr. Melloul acknowledges that his roots are in public diplomacy, not journalism, and he isn’t shy about i24′s Israeli identity and mission: serving as an 'alternative' to Al Jazeera and enhancing Israeli soft power by playing up the country’s democracy. 'I am not a journalist, I am a diplomat,' said Mr. Melloul. 'My mission is to help Israel change its image.'” Image from entry, with caption: CEO of the Israeli-based TV channel i24 news Frank Melloul.
Israel and BuzzFeed: When Government PR Goes Viral -- User-generated content isn't just for everyday people anymore - theatlantic.com: "Two weeks ago, Israel expanded its robust ‘public diplomacy’ efforts, which include an active Twitter presence and a popular military Instagram, with a post written by its American embassy (@IsraelinUSA) on the redoubtable viral news and entertainment juggernaut BuzzFeed. Instead of something in line with the light fare normally found on the community section of the website, which is home to such items as ‘15 Ways That Cats Are Trying To Take Over Our Lives,’ ‘18 Inappropriate Places to Twerk,’ and other ephemera created by readers, the Israeli embassy's debut tackled a more solemn subject. Headlined, ‘Threats Facing Israel, Explained In One (Sort of Terrifying) Map,’ the post outlined and detailed the menacing perils on the country's borders."
The Israeli embassy told The Atlantic that its decision to join the BuzzFeed community was motivated by the site's extreme popularity and, much like the other users on the site, a desire to receive maximum exposure. ‘We want to be where the people are,’ Noam Katz, the Embassy of Israel's minister of public diplomacy, wrote in an emailed statement. ‘Buzzfeed, as a website, offers a platform friendly to virality, and we wanted to see where it could take us. So, we opened a community page and created a post. If the public goes to a new platform, or a new website, we will explore opportunities to engage with them there.’ With the crisis in Syria unfolding, the embassy saw a perfect opportunity to insert ‘Israel Israel is ever more committed to maintaining our existing peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt Israel
The World From Here: Defeating ‘cocktail terrorism’ - Dan Diker, Jerusalem Post: "Israel faces a more complex challenge in its intensifying war against radical Islamic terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, whose dual identities as 'semi-terror, semi-government organizations' – Hamas as the de facto government in Gaza and Hezbollah a major power in Lebanon’s government – constitute a complex and potentially deadly 'cocktail' terror threat. Paradoxically, the upgraded threat to Israel is embedded in the international legitimacy accorded to Hamas and even Hezbollah as hybrid terror organizations. ... This is why this two-headed threat requires a multidimensional public diplomacy strategy as part of an overall counter-terror strategy by Israel. Dr. Boaz Ganor and the IDC’s International Institute for Counter Terrorism’s major forthcoming book on Israel’s counter-terrorism doctrine plays a pioneering role in this line of thinking. 'Cyber ops' should also focus on social networks. The enemy attacks with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Israel and its 'family,' friends and supporters must wage the same online counter-terror campaign. This means positive branding of Israel and negative branding of its adversaries. The bottom line is that Israel’s security, political and diplomatic echelons must work together, in a unified, synchronized strategic campaign that moves from tactics and response to strategic initiative. The Netanyahu government has taken important steps in this direction. There is still much work to be done."
Where Are the Borders? - Jerold S. Auerbach, algemeiner.com: "Palestinian Authority officials, evidently terrified that talks with Israel might actually lead somewhere, have predictably placed yet another obstacle on the way. They are now claiming that they received a guarantee from Secretary of State Kerry that negotiations over a two-state solution would be based on the 1949 Armistice lines, before they were obliterated during the Six-Day War. Even such a promise, if it exists, would be all but worthless. It blatantly contradicts United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, ratified five months after the war, which set the parameters for future negotiations and agreements between Israel, Arab states, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. According to the Resolution, 'the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East' required 'withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict' – but not from 'the territories' or 'all the territories.'
The absence of 'the,' the famous missing definite article, was neither an accident nor an afterthought. It resulted from what American Undersecretary for Political Affairs Eugene V. Rostow, who played a major role in drafting Resolution 242, described as more than five months of 'vehement public diplomacy' to decisively clarify its meaning. Rostow correctly asserted that according to international law 'the Jewish right of settlement west of the Jordan River' was 'unassailable.' ... Unless Secretary Kerry unilaterally decided to unravel Resolution 242, which he is not empowered to do, Israel retains the international assurance that any eventual withdrawal from 'occupied territory' need not be total." Image with caption: Unless Secretary Kerry unilaterally decided to unravel Resolution 242, which he is not empowered to do, Israel retains the international assurance that any eventual withdrawal from “occupied territory” need not be total. Image from article, with caption: A neighbourhood in Ariel, Israel.
Iranian Conservatists are Angry at FM's Media Diplomacy: Tweet Diplomacy No Substitute for Ahmadinejad's Courage - Firoozeh Matin, Rooz Online: "The continued presence of Iran's new Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif on Facebook and Twitter, the latest encounter involving well-wishes to the Jews on Rosh Hashanah ... has received wide international coverage. ... Hyper reactions to Zarif's exchanges on Facebook heightened when the foreign minister personally responded to Christine Pelosi's remark that the Jewish 'New Year would be sweeter if ... Iran ended its Holocaust denial' by responding that Iran had never
denied the Holocaust and that the man who had denied it was gone. ... Raja news agency - associated with supporters of Ahmadinejad - for example called Zarif's response 'disgraceful.' It wrote, 'While those individuals who judge and interpret public diplomacy with such events as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at New York's Columbia University, and the great wave it produced across the world, are now disappointed to see the level of events drop to such low dimensions as messages on Tweeter, but it appears that this Tweeter event has fully pre-occupied the foreign minister and his associates, so that if they called Ahmadinejad's great and global action 'populism', what shall this humiliating Tweeter event be called?'" Image from entry
Iran: Senior officials join Facebook, Twitter - Michael Purcell, scotsman.com: "Iran’s entire 15-member cabinet has opened Facebook pages in recent weeks. Spearheading the cyber charm offensive has been US-educated foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who used his new English-language Twitter account last week to wish Jews a happy new year and to proclaim that his country did not deny the Holocaust. A day earlier, president Hassan Rouhani appeared to issue a tweet wishing 'all Jews' a 'blessed' new year on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Yesterday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei put on his Facebook page unexpected praise for French novelist Victor Hugo’s most famous work. 'Les Miserables is a miracle in the world of novel writing, in the world of book writing; it is really a miracle … I recommend all young people to read it once,' he wrote, in comments translated into English.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s love of western literature is known, but he has not previously aired his views to a global audience. Iran’s public diplomacy drive is preparing the ground for key events. Tehran is due in coming weeks to resume high-stakes talks on its nuclear programme with six world powers, including the United States. Mr Rouhani, who is regarded as a moderate pragmatist, has transferred the handling of those negotiations to Mr Zarif’s foreign ministry, taking the portfolio away from hardline security officials. And later this month, Mr Rouhani will make his debut on the international stage when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Jewish new year greetings were clearly aimed at distancing his administration from that of his pugnacious predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose reckless denials of the Holocaust made him toxic to western public opinion, tarnished Iran’s image abroad, fuelled fears over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, and embarrassed many Iranians." Image from article, with caption: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javed Zarif took to Twitter to reach out to Jews around the world. See also.
20th anniversary of Indo-Russian Friendship Treaty observed in Delhi: The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed by Russia and India on January 3, 1993 - Russia and India Report: "On September 9, the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in New Delhi (RCSC) jointly with the Indian Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Russian Embassy in India held a seminar titled 'Russian-Indian Relations: Achievements and Perspectives,' which was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Russia and India.
The programme’s participants included Indian diplomats, political scientists and representatives of socio-political and scientific communities from different regions of India, including Delhi, Punjab and Kashmir. ... The participants ... discussed increasing Russian investments to India, strengthening of the public diplomacy and the encouraging growth in the number of Indian students going to study in Russian universities. The panelists, however, agreed that the potential of the Russian-Indian privileged strategic partnership in these areas is far from exhausted, and the two countries should continue to exert concerted efforts for their further sustainable development." Image from entry, with caption: Speech by Mr. Kanwal Sibal.
German elections: don’t mention the EU - Rainer Wend, "A new ‘European Public Diplomacy’ could spur a dialogue with German civil society beyond the borders of the member States."
Johuiyong metabolism, Canada official visit to the eastern region [Google "translation"] - dongponews.net: "Johuiyong (photo) 2013, and Ambassador to Canada - "Cave and the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, the 60th anniversary of a power failure ('Year of Korea in Canada, Year of the Korean War Veteran') comes on the occasion of 12 to 19 PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, including an official visit to three weeks in eastern Canada, for the Korean War Veterans delivery company with one-caching relations between
the two countries is expected to discuss development plans. ... Opportunity to visit eastern Canada, Ambassador Joe has a meeting with the local Korean Association of Personnel, and the Korean War, the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations 60 anniversary of a power failure while sharing the special meaning this year, one-way cache relations will be exchanged views on. ... In addition, Ambassador Joe geumbeon visit eastern Canada during the Canadian college students, opinion leaders and the general Canadian citizens targeting '2013 Year of Korea in Canada; A path toward a Strategic Partnership' one unloading-cache status and prospects for relations between the two countries to lecture By doing Canada for the development of bilateral relations, support and cooperation of the general public to encourage active Public Diplomacy activities will be carried out." Uncaptioned image from entry
Foreign Office journals speed up the "going out" 8 Languages 9 Chinese version to achieve localization [Google "translation"] - news.china.com.cn: "'Public Diplomacy Quarterly': Quarterly, Chinese. June 2013 publication. Chinese version, the English name for the Public Diplomacy Quarterly. Folio of 16, page number 134. Expected circulation of 10,000 / issue. Aims to promote the development of public diplomacy, serving China's overall diplomatic strategy."
Uzbekistan, China Aim for New Horizons of Strategic Partnership - uza.uz: "As it was reported earlier, at the invitation of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping arrived in our country on September 8 with state visit. ... Relations in culture, science and technologies have been actively advancing between our two countries. The first monument to the representative of the Uzbek culture – the great miniature artist Kamoliddin Behzod was opened in China in 2003 in the city of Chanchun of the Jilin province within the frameworks of the 6th Forum of World Sculpture.
The Uzbekistan-China Friendship Society and the PRC-Central Asian Countries Friendship Society have been instrumental in advancing mutual contacts. On 15 May 2013, the city of Shanghai hosted the opening ceremony of China’s first Center for the Study of Uzbekistan and the education exchanges at the base of the Public Diplomacy Research Institute of SCO at Shanghai University." Uncaptioned image from article
‘s [sic] diplomacy closely around the central task of the Party and the state - webcoms.nevadastateblog.org: "China successfully held the third meeting of the leaders of the BRIC countries, BRIC to further strengthen coordination and cooperation between countries. We focus on 'second five' planning and implementation, the 90th anniversary of the 100th anniversary of Revolution and other major activities, carry out public diplomacy, to show the world China’s determination to take the road of peaceful development and sincerity, sing the bright prospects of China’s development. Three prospects in 2012, the growth and decline of international forces, changes in the international system to adjust, international relations, interaction will run commenced at a deeper level, peace, development and cooperation, the trend will be more robust."
Bonaire, WWII, Netherlands Information Bureau, Philip Hanson Hiss, (I), 1942-1943 - globedivers.org: "The establishment of the Netherlands Information Bureau (NIB) in June 1941 relates to the notion of public diplomacy as a wartime necessity as explained by David Snyder in 'Dutch Cultural Policy in the United States. ... The connection with the Netherlands East Indies
was especially valuable to the NIB as this territory played an important role in the public diplomacy of the early years of the war, because of the strategic importance of the Indies’ location." Image from entry
The Age of Phantom Diplomacy - thinkingdice.wordpress.com: "Dear Reader, Greetings and Good Day, '…in the newly minted 'field' of public diplomacy – a hybrid 'discipline' that draws upon the social sciences, journalism, foreign language and cultural expertise. Public diplomacy is foremost a skill, like it or not, that is most effectively learned from practitioners and best acquired on the job'. It is unprecedented in international affairs to witness such a velocity in current diplomatic happenings. Perhaps we should call it the Age of phantom diplomacy. Can this rapidly evolving international diplomatic climate represent a promise for a political platform in Syria or it will pave the way for military escalation?"
Public diplomacy vital - iipmeducation.wordpress.com: "[F]oreign policy is not merely aimed at the government and elite sections of another nation-state but also at its people and the larger sections of its civil society. Public diplomacy has gained critical importance since it relies on the use of soft power to covertly influence significant sections of foreign population in order to enhance the impact of hard power if ever required during times of confrontation. ... [T]he more participatory nature of foreign policy has given space for the media to emerge as a powerful and influential player. Today, nation-states are using the media as a platform to indulge in information warfare which is intrinsically linked to public diplomacy. The state is also being thrust increasingly under the spotlight while making decisions which has put it under immense pressure and prone to making mistakes."
Ethiopia: Annual Diplomats' Conference Concludes - allafrica.com: "[T]he conference ... set a direction to deploy strong public diplomacy constituting: elite, media personnel, authors and other artists for the current year."
Beirut, France and the History of Cultural Relations - Robin, Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: "Lebanon, and the Levant more broadly, is the founding site of modern cultural relations work."
Unrest causes St. James native to return from Cairo: St. James grad worked in Yemen, Egypt - Amanda Dyslin, mankatofreepress.com: "Matthew Kuehl isn't sure where his fascination with the Middle East and northern Africa came from. ... [F]or the past eight years, Kuehl worked for university programs in Yemen and Cairo. But recently, the ongoing unrest in Egypt led to the cancellation of his program for fall and spring semesters at America-Mideast Educational and Training Services Inc. in Cairo. (AMIDEAST is a private American nonprofit organization engaged in international education, training and development assistance work.) ... [I]n the majority of the city of 20 million people, Kuehl
said Americans are welcomed. For eight years, what he enjoyed most was the public diplomacy aspect of his job, he said — having those meaningful conversation with students and Egyptians that help show the complexity and depth of both cultures." Image from article, with caption: John Cross Matthew Kuehl, a St. James native, worked the past eight years for university programs in Yemen and Egypt. The ongoing unrest in Egypt resulted in the cancellation of his program for this year.
Obama Announces His Intent to Nominate Esther Kia’aina as DOI Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas - pacificnewscenter.com: "READ the release from the White House below: ... President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts . ... Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, Nominee for Alternate Representative of the United States to the Sixty-eighth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations [.] Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley is a Special Adviser at the Department of State. From 2010 to 2012, she served as Special Representative for Public-Private Partnerships in the Global Partnership Initiative at the Department of State. From 2008 to 2011, Ambassador Bagley was a Member on the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy."
RELATED ITEMS
The world now has a chance to end war in Syria - Jimmy Carter, Washington Post: The only way to be assured that Syrian chemical weapons will not be used in the future is not through a military strike but through a successful international effort. If fully implemented in dozens of sites throughout Syria, the effort to secure the chemical weapons would amount to a cease-fire, with a large U.N. peacekeeping force deployed. In the best of circumstances, this could lead to convening the Geneva peace conference, perhaps including Iran, that could end the conflict.
Obama lifted his Syria speech from Bush - Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post: If Bush was so bad, then why did Obama lift so much of his speech making the case for military action in Syria from Bush’s speech making the case for military action in Iraq?
Obama argues stronger Syria case, belatedly: Tuesday's speech, hastily rewritten to reflect fast-moving diplomatic developments, is better viewed as a fresh starting point - Editorial, USA Today: If Obama's so-far unsteady Syria policy causes concern — and it should — a wary public should at least find some comfort in his ambivalence. Unlike George W. Bush or Lyndon Johnson, who were hungry to go war, there seems no doubt that Obama wants to avoid one. Ironically, he's most likely to attain that goal only if he can make the threat.
Nice try, Mr. President, but no sale on Syria - Matt Miller, Washington Post: Putin may have bought the president the breather he craves. But between the long-running box he’s now put himself in on Syria, and the prospect of the White House botching another debt ceiling showdown just ahead, the president’s authority in his second term is in danger of collapse .
The Speech - Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: He should have canceled the speech. It was halfhearted, pro forma and strange. It added nothing, did not deepen or advance the story, was not equal to the atmosphere surrounding it, and gave no arguments John Kerry hasn’t made, often more forcefully, in the past 10 days. Image from
A Child’s Treasury of Tweets on Syria - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: The policy on Syria is in such disarray that it’s obvious Kerry is just making things up as he goes along. Pathetic: Susan Rice citing Bush officials who sold the WMD scam to Americans on Iraq as supporters of Syria strikes. Obama in Egypt: OK to kill your own people. Obama in Syria: Killing your own people means war. UN says will take weeks to analyze Syria samples for evidence of chem weapons; Kerry says US already has proof.
A clearer sense on the mission in Syria is still missing - Stephen Stromberg, Washington Post: Obama wants to make it clear that mass murderers will pay a price for extreme brutality, even if America can’t respond to every outrage across the planet. But we should also have a clearer sense of how the United States will approach the larger Syrian conflict, which had already resulted in 100,000 deaths before the latest gas attacks, along with an explanation of whether and why it matters to the United States, morally or strategically.
Five reasons not to attack Syria, and one elegant solution - Doyle McManus, latimes.com: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed putting Syria’s chemical weapons under international control and then destroying them. Now that would be an elegant solution to the Syrian crisis.
Chemical weapons deal may end up strengthening Assad - Jim Michaels, USA Today: A deal allowing Bashar Assad to surrender Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles runs the risk of extending his stay in power and undercutting support of rebels who have been fighting his regime with U.S. support, some analysts say.
On the eve of 9/11, team Obama blinks while Putin strengthens his hand - Charles Ortel, Washington Times: One year following triumphant shouts of progress in America, tumult reigns throughout the Middle East. Across the region and throughout the world, a power chasm yawns as Russia advances and America retreats.
Obama administration uses grotesque images to sell Syria strike - Ben Wolfgang, Washington Times: In selling a strike against Syria to a skeptical American public, top administration officials repeatedly have evoked the chilling videos and images from the aftermath of the deadly Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus. During his prime-time address to the nation Tuesday night, President Obama became the latest to use that strategy, actively encouraging Americans to view the gruesome footage of dead children, killed by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power made a similar case during remarks last Friday at the Center for American Progress. “We share the deep conviction that chemical weapons are barbaric, that we should never again see children killed in their beds, lost to a world that they never had the chance to try to change,” she said. Image from, with headline: b-activists: Where is the “Napalm girl” that was burned in South Vietnam 37 years ago?
Stumbling toward a solution on Syria - Editorial, Washington Post: The president’s approach to Syria remains muddled.
Kerry’s not-so-clear sailing on Syria - Dana Millbank, Washington Post: The administration has lost control of the Syria situation and is now watching developments much like everybody else.
The Syrian deus ex machina - David Ignatius, Washington Post: Obama, Kerry and the Russians have been talking about control of Syrian chemical weapons for many months.
The road to Damascus: Obama needs to weigh Syria's offer on its chemical weapons, even as he presents evidence of Assad's wrongdoing - Editorial, latimes.com: Obama will presumably continue his struggle to build support for a military strike, a plan that has divided the country and that faces an uphill climb in Congress. But this much is certain: The president will be more successful in that appeal if the government makes public the evidence it says it has amassed showing that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb last month that killed hundreds of civilians. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said over the weekend that the attribution of the attack to Assad passed the "common-sense test." But that won't be enough for many Americans who remember how the U.S. invaded Iraq a decade ago on the flawed assumption that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. See also John Brown, "The Common-sense test," Notes and Essays
Obama Rescues Assad: The President lets Putin outmaneuver him on Syrian chemical arms - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: What could be worse for America's standing in the world than a Congress refusing to support a President's proposal for military action against a rogue regime that used WMD? Here's one idea: A U.S. President letting that rogue be rescued from military punishment by the country that has protected the rogue all along.
That's where President Obama now finds himself on Syria after he embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to take custody of Bashar Assad's chemical weapons. What a fiasco. See also John Brown, "Kerry and the State Department." Image from entry
Putin's diplomacy overshadows Obama's Syrian war cry - Thomas Mullen, Washington Times: Why was it Russia that proposed a diplomatic solution, while the Nobel Peace Prize-winning U.S. president would consider nothing but war?
Making Sense of Syria - Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: The president has backed away from a military strike in Syria. But he can’t acknowledge this or act as if it is true. He is acting and talking as if he’s coolly, analytically, even warily contemplating the Russian proposal and the Syrian response. The proposal, he must know, is absurd. Bashar Assad isn’t going to give up all his hidden weapons in wartime, in the middle of a conflict so bitter and severe that his forces this morning reportedly bombed parts of Damascus, the city in which he lives.
The Syria speech Obama should have made - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: President Obama was most convincing tonight when he made the moral argument for a strike on Syria. He was least convincing when he claimed an attack would involve “modest effort and risk.”
Threaten to Threaten - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: It is impossible to imagine a solution to the conflict in Syria without some outside force putting boots on the ground.
Finally, Obama gives a reason to take action in Syria - Richard Cohen, Washington Post: Did Obama warn Bashar al-Assad that American would hold him accountable for what he was about to do? Did he say that America would blow the Syrian military sky high? If Obama said any of those things he did not mention it tonight. Instead, he confessed to be a witness to crime -- mute, inert and morally culpable. It has taken this president too long to understand that evil must be dealt with.
Obama’s Syria speech: An illogical argument from a paralyzed president - Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post: By throwing the ball to Congress and then to Russia, Obama has effectively taken the use of force off the table, letting the Russians and Assad set the ground rules. From a moral and geopolitical standpoint, this is a debacle that will extend throughout the Middle East and beyond.
America’s Not-Always-Disastrous Middle East Record - Ross Doubthat, New York Times: There is a lot of wisdom in the anti-interventionist idea that we have more to gain by letting some of the region’s ongoing conflicts — Shi’a versus Sunni, Assad versus Islamists, Egypt’s generals versus the Muslim Brotherhood — play themselves out rather than pushing money and arms hither and yon in pursuit of an illusory sense of mastery.
The Cuban missile crisis’s lessons for Syria, and Obama - Michael Dobbs, Washington Post: The most useful lesson that our current president could draw from the Cuban missile crisis would be to emulate Kennedy in slowing down the seemingly inexorable rush to war.
Paris through a Nazi's lens: Propaganda pictures of Occupied France taken by photographer ordered to prove city was thriving under German rule - Becky Evans, dailymail.co.uk: Andre Zucca's images of Paris in the Second World War have remained controversial; they appear to show Parisians carefree and jubilant under Nazi occupation and Vichy rule; photojournalist took images of fashionable women, smiling soldiers and happy families in the capital. Images:
AMERICANA
Top 1% take biggest income slice on record - Matt Krantz, USA Today: The gulf between the richest 1% of the USA and the rest of the country got to its widest level in history last year. The top 1% of earners in the U.S. pulled in 19.3% of total household income in 2012, which is their biggest slice of total income in more than 100 years, according to a an analysis by economists at the University of California, Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics at Oxford University.
MORE AMERICANA
Pizzaburger gives new meaning to eating American - Bruce Horovitz, USA Today: Two American favorites — pizza and burgers — are being rolled into one for a wacky sandwich
that's giving one casual dining chain -- Boston's Restaurant & Sports Bar's 40 U.S. locations -- a sales boost. Image from article
AND MORE AMERICANA
Photos of New York City politicians Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer from "Double Loss For Frowny Sucked-In Lips Face," Princess Sparkle Pony's Photoblog; see also Cheryl K. Chumley, "Anthony Weiner exits NYC mayoral race with middle finger to crowd," Washington Times
SEXUALITY
Size matters? Testicle size linked to nurturing: Men with smaller testicles are more involved in bringing up their children, a study finds - John Bacon, USA TODAY: Some researchers question the study's findings. Abass Alavi, a researcher with the University of Pennsylvania, told CNN that size doesn't even determine how much sperm is being created. "What is important is how much sperm the testicle is making," he said. "Some geniuses have very small brains."Beirut, France and the History of Cultural Relations
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